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Report Offers Forecasts for Utility-Scale Energy Storage Systems

Navigant Research report shows 10 countries are expected to account for approximately 80% of the annual market utility-scale energy storage in 2019.

Sep 05, 2019

A recent report from Navigant Research, Country Forecasts for Utility-Scale Energy Storage, provides forecasts for utility-scale energy storage systems (ESSs) deployed globally in terms of power capacity (megawatts), energy capacity (megawatt-hours), and revenue generated from the development of new projects in 26 countries worldwide.

These forecasts cover systems providing all major utility-scale energy storage services and applications. Forecasts include the most common technologies for utility-scale energy storage including electrochemical (batteries) and electromechanical (pumped hydro, compressed air, flywheels, and so forth) technologies for 2019 to 2028.

With the emergence of new markets and applications, 2018 represented the largest year on record for new ESS capacity. Despite this growth, however, the market remains concentrated in a relatively small number of countries with the right policies, market structures, regulations, and renewable energy deployments. According to the report, it is expected that 10 countries will account for 1242.1 MW of new capacity, or approximately 80% of the global market in 2019. These countries include the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Brazil.

"In terms of applications for new utility-scale energy storage projects, solar plus storage has emerged as a major opportunity and driver of new growth," says Alex Eller, senior research analyst at Navigant Research. "The rapidly falling costs for both technologies have made combined solar plus storage plants economically competitive against conventional fossil fuel plants in a growing number of markets, which allows a solar plant to be a predictable resource for grid operators."

Despite the growth in new renewable energy shifting projects, the shorter duration grid stability applications remain the foundation for many emerging markets. Frequency regulation and related services in particular, are the starting point for most countries seeing a growing energy storage industry. There has been a general pattern as energy storage markets mature: a transition from these shorter duration stability applications to longer duration bulk storage services such as renewable energy shifting and transmission and distribution (T&D) asset optimization.